A week after his disappearance, the body of Sihem, 18, was found in an isolated path, in the Gard, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday February 2.
Through ThePoint.fr (with AFP)
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Lhe fears of the family of Sihem, an 18-year-old high school student who disappeared in the Gard since January 25, were unfortunately well founded. A week after her disappearance, the main suspect confessed and the lifeless body of the high school student was found in an isolated place in Salles-du-Gardon, north of Alès. “It was indeed the body of Sihem,” said the public prosecutor of Nîmes, Cécile Gensac, during a press conference.
Placed in police custody on Tuesday January 31, Mahfoud H. is the ex-husband of the cousin of the victim. Heard under police custody with his ex-girlfriend, the 39-year-old man admitted on Wednesday evening that he “did something stupid”, then he led the investigators to the body, in an isolated path in La Grand- Combe, where the disappeared resided. He says he killed her the evening of her disappearance, Wednesday, January 25.
The body of the young woman was found around 1 a.m. “The man said he killed the young woman after an argument related to their romantic relationship,” said Cécile Gensac. The man was referred to the prosecution. He is indicted for “kidnapping, sequestration without voluntary release before 7e day “. But the investigators having discovered the body, “a requalification of the facts will possibly be considered”, explains Cécile Gensac.
Autopsy findings are expected next week.
A love relationship ?
According to Free lunchthe suspect reportedly explained that he had actually been in a romantic relationship with Sihem for several months and “didn’t dare [l’]confess to his relatives because the young woman was a cousin of his wife, from whom he was also in the process of separating. A version slightly contradicted by The Parisian who thinks he knows that “the suspect claims that the victim was in love with him, but that he refused this relationship” because of their family ties.
“Mahfoud H. allegedly tried to silence the girl by putting his hand over her mouth. Sihem would have died of suffocation”, write our colleagues.
“I assisted a man who decided to face his heavy responsibility in the disappearance of Sihem and put an end to an unbearable suspense for his relatives by guiding the investigators”, declared to AFP the lawyer of the alleged murderer, Me Jean-Marc Darrigade. “He knows his fault is not forgivable, but his silence would only have made it worse,” he added.
A man already known to the police
The main suspect, Mahfoud M., has already been sentenced five times for damage to property and eight times for acts related to driving a vehicle. He was mainly sentenced to twelve years in prison in 2015 for a series of organized gang robberies and armed robberies. He had since been under judicial supervision. He was also summoned to court on Wednesday 1er February, in the context of a trial at the assizes for theft with possession of a weapon.
Asking for respect for a “time of contemplation” and evoking a young girl “loved and appreciated by all”, Sihem’s family assured “place(s) their full confidence in the judicial institution to know and understand the circumstances of his death”, according to a press release from his lawyers, Mr.are Sara Benlefki and Mourad Battikh.
Since she left her home on the evening of January 25, in La Grand-Combe, near Alès, Sihem had not given any sign of life. Neither the overflights of the sector by helicopter, nor the use of tracking dogs, nor the searches carried out had made it possible to find her. On Wednesday, the public prosecutor of Nîmes, Cécile Gensac, had indicated that “elements could suggest a disappearance in connection with facts aimed at obtaining funds”.
The number of feminicides increased by 20% in France in 2021 compared to the previous year, with 122 women killed under the blows of their spouse or ex-spouse, against 102 in 2020, according to a report published in August 2002 by the Ministry of the Interior. The lower toll of 2020, with 102 women killed compared to 146 in 2019, had been exceptional, without it being known what role the periods of confinement and curfew played there.